Bryant starts grief support website and groups

• Cullen Bryant

Cullen Bryant died of cancer two years ago. Submitted photo
• Matthew Bryant

Matthew Bryant died 14 years ago from cancer. Submitted photo

Talk about it

The death of a child is something no one wants to go through, but in the case of Lynnette Bryant and her family, they have had to deal with the grief of losing two children.

“I’ve had two of my children die of cancer. Cullen died two years ago and Matthew died 14 years ago,” Bryant said.

During her grieving, Bryant began to see that people dealt with the pain of losing someone in different ways.

“In the process of grieving, people need more options because everyone deals with their pain in a unique way,” Bryant said. “I wanted to create a site where people could go to pour out their hearts and find support.”

The idea of creating a social networking website to help support individuals who are grieving over the loss of someone close to them began to form this September. The social networking site, togetherinloss.com, went online a few months later in November.

“I feel like I have been through this for a reason,” Bryant said, “to help and support other people who have gone through the same thing I have.”

Helping Bryant with the creation of the grief and social networking site has been her other son, Michael, a junior in college, who has knowledge of websites.

“It has been good to see him excited about something. It has been hard on him, but this has been a good way for him to deal with his grief,” Bryant said.

Along with the creation of the website, Bryant has been working on putting together a support group for people to meet face to face and help each other with the loss they are going through.

“I have set up a group that can meet every second Tuesday of the month at Bethel Lutheran and every fourth Tuesday at the United Methodist Church. I have been to 13 churches in the area and they have all been very supportive,” Bryant said. “The social networking site is for the days in between meetings and allows people to connect when something comes up.”

Bryant’s grief support group met for the first time on Tuesday, Dec. 21. For more information on the meetings, visit www.togetherinloss.com.

Tags: lifestyle, health, family